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Let's Reminisce: Sony Playstation

Listening to the podcast got me to thinking about the original Playstation.
I wasn't a fan at first. I was a diehard Sega man and hated how Sony stole all the developers and how a game would come out only for Playstation or even worse, be announced for Saturn but then get moved to Playstation. IT JUST WASN'T FAIR!
Besides, fuck Polygon Man!

But eventually I got over that. I had no choice really. The trickle of games at the end of the Saturn's life, though quite awesome for the most part, wasn't enough to keep me going. Even with steady stops to the import shop. I had game envy. Sorry Sega.
I did rent a playstation for a week (remember when you used to be able to rent consoles?) when it first came out. Raiden Project kept me happy, but I hated the original controller.
The first time I bought a Playstation was the day Final Fantasy VII came out. I hated it and eventually sold it all off (I pride myself on disliking FF7 before it was the hip thing to do).
A year later I bought a Playstation for Resident Evil 2. I hated that game too, but this time kept the system.
I remember getting Moto Racer 2 and loving the hell out it. The original Monster RANCHER stole an obscene amount of time from me as I through every CD I and my friends had into the Playstation so that I could get awesome new monsters. I missed out on the first Tecmo's Deception, but Kagero was the shit! I had never played anything like it before.

It's real easy to hate on Sony (especially if you were a Sega die hard) but that system had a lot of special games, above and beyond the usual classics everyone gushes about.

So go ahead, gush about Symphony of the Night and Metal Gear Solid and the Square RPGS. That's fine. But I'd be more interested in reading your thoughts on Circuit Breakers or The Divide Enemy Within or Project Overkill.

Last edited by Some Stupid Japanese Name; 06 Apr 2012 at 05:21 AM.
Reason: just seeing if anyone was paying attention. Yeah, that's it!

My story is similar to yours with some N64 thrown in as well. I had the Saturn and N64 at launch but didn't get a PS1 until Resident Evil.

It was home to the eventual series ruining Final Fantasy VII and Symphony of the Night, and those games tend to overshadow the really good ones, like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Tomb Raider. Those, along with Metal Gear Solid, got remade/reimagined with varying degrees of success of course.

In terms of the road somewhat less traveled, the PS1 was a very underrated shooter machine with Einhander, G Darius, R-Type Delta, Harmful Park, etc. as exclusives. It also had some decent 2D sidescrollers, like Adventures of Little Ralph and Gunners Heaven, both of which I have on PSN now, thanks to the Hong Kong store.

I'm sure a ton more will come to mind as I think about this. We need more threads like this one.

edit: Tenchu! What a great new experience that one was.

edit2: Jesus. I forgot Dino Crisis 1-2! I have a plan... BRB

edit3: Here is what I still have in either physical or digital form from the PS1 (which implies I must find some value in them, though some are just PS+ freebies):

For a second, I confused Adventures of Little Ralph for Adventures of Lomax.
It took me YEARS to track down a copy of Lomax. I loved Flink on Sega CD and had heard about a Playstation game made by the same dudes.
When I eventually got it, what I had built it up to be in my head far outshined what I found myself playing.
Still, it was a good game.

I remember getting the PlayStation on a day where I had to choose between getting the 32X and this - I definitely made the right move by getting this and remember buying WrestleMania the Arcade Game at launch, and ESPN Extreme Sports a few weeks later after loving the demo and wanting a Road Rash fix on it, but I don't think the 3DO Road Rash was out yet. The first game I got for it as a gift was Wipeout from my uncle Ernie, which I always sucked at due to the touchy controls, but enjoyed because it looked so good. I also really dug the Jumping Flash demo, but never owned the full game until it was available as a PSN download.

The first import game I ever bought was on the PlayStation - Toukon Retsuden, the New Japan Pro Wrestling game that Gamefan did a piece for and I just HAD to have it since it had the Great Muta in it. My friends and I had a ton of fun playing that game and even had our own rankings and titles on notebook paper. That was a fun time - then the sequel came out and introduced four-ways and tag matches and made things even more interesting there.

For a second, I confused Adventures of Little Ralph for Adventures of Lomax.
It took me YEARS to track down a copy of Lomax. I loved Flink on Sega CD and had heard about a Playstation game made by the same dudes.
When I eventually got it, what I had built it up to be in my head far outshined what I found myself playing.
Still, it was a good game.

I always wanted to give Lomax a whirl but never did. I think it eventually got to be worth more in cash than what it was worth to me to try.

edit: I forgot and don't own Vandal Hearts anymore. That is doubly shameful. Final Fantasy Tactics deserves a nod, despite the PSP/iOS versions that are now out there.